BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – LEADER of the People’s Action Movement (PAM) and Parliamentary Representative for Constituency Number Five, the Hon. Shawn Richards is no longer an employee of the St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla Trading and Development Company Limited (TDC).
Richards, who had been working with TDC for some 14 years and whose last appointment was Manager of the Internal Audit Department, ceased to work with the company with effect from Tuesday, January 1, 2013.
This information was confirmed by TDC’s Resource Manager Dennis Knight who, in an exclusive interview with SKNVibes, stated that because of adjustments made by the company to combat the economic downturn, a number of changes were made in order to accrue much needed profit.
“We have been looking at the performance of the company in relation to the performance of the economy and how the company has fared within the present economic environment...locally, regionally and globally.
“If you had followed figures given in our annual General Reports, you would have seen that over the last couple of years our profits have been seriously reduced. Obviously, this cannot continue…this can’t be business as usual,” Knight said.
The Resource Manager informed that TDC’s Board of Directors had initiated an exercise with the aim of finding solutions to make the company more viable, which resulted in the Audit Department Manager’s position becoming redundant.
“During last year, the Board set up a team of us to conduct a Strategic Planning Exercise and before the end of the year we had completed the first phase of that exercise and had made a report to the Board.
“Out of that Report and the recommendations that went to the Board, a number of initiatives were decided upon, and part of that was to restructure what was then our Internal Audit Department and expound its role to include Risk Management, etc. Therefore, the position that we had as Senior Auditor became redundant.”
When contacted by this publication, Richards intimated that he had no comment to make at the time.
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